Some artists sculpt matter. Leoncillo, by contrast, seems to set it free. In his hands, clay is never an inert material but a living substance that bends, tears, grows and transforms like a living organism. This is the essence of Leoncillo. Perché più bruci, the exhibition at Thaddaeus Ropac Milan dedicated to one of the leading figures of twentieth-century Italian sculpture.
Organised in collaboration with the Fondazione Leoncillo, the exhibition traces four decades of artistic exploration, from the artist's early figurative works to the striking Informal sculptures of the 1960s. Running throughout the exhibition is the recurring image of the tree, a symbol of nature in constant transformation, intertwined with the human body. Cracks, cuts, glowing glazes and vibrant surfaces evoke a material that seems to breathe, revealing how Leoncillo transformed ceramics into a language of remarkable expressive power and enduring contemporary relevance. Born in Spoleto in 1915, Leoncillo Leonardi revolutionised the language of sculpture by making clay his chosen medium for expressing tension, memory and emotion. He represented Italy at six editions of the Venice Biennale, and today his works are held in the collections of institutions including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. An exhibition that reveals why, even today, the fire that shaped his work continues to ignite its extraordinary modernity.
